“Rise of the Red Hand mixes the best of cyberpunk and anime with a tale of family and revolution to create something completely unique—intimate yet action-packed, touching yet thrilling. Olivia Chadha delivers as much action as she does heart, all with a healthy dose of mecha. It kicks ass.”
Available Now / $18.95 / 384 pages
A rare, searing portrayal of the future of climate change in South Asia. A streetrat turned revolutionary and the disillusioned hacker son of a politician try to take down a ruthlessly technocratic government that sacrifices its poorest citizens to build its utopia.
The South Asian Province is split in two. Uplanders lead luxurious lives inside a climate-controlled biodome, dependent on technology and gene therapy to keep them healthy and youthful forever. Outside, the poor and forgotten scrape by with discarded black-market robotics, a society of poverty-stricken cyborgs struggling to survive in slums threatened by rising sea levels, unbreathable air, and deadly superbugs.
Ashiva works for the Red Hand, an underground network of revolutionaries fighting the government, which is run by a merciless computer algorithm that dictates every citizen’s fate. She’s a smuggler with the best robotic arm and cybernetic enhancements the slums can offer, and her cargo includes the most vulnerable of the city’s abandoned children.
When Ashiva crosses paths with the brilliant hacker Riz-Ali, a privileged Uplander who finds himself embroiled in the Red Hand’s dangerous activities, they uncover a horrifying conspiracy that the government will do anything to bury. From armed guardians kidnapping children to massive robots flattening the slums, to a pandemic that threatens to sweep through the city like wildfire, Ashiva and Riz-Ali will have to put aside their differences in order to fight the system and save the communities they love from destruction.
Olivia writes science fiction, fantasy, comic books, and literary novels for teens and adults. She has a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing and her research centers on the history of exile, India’s Partition, precarious borders and boundaries, global folklore and fairy tales, and the relationship between humans, machines and the environment. Balance of Fragile Things is her debut adult literary novel. Rise of the Red Hand, her YA debut, was awarded the Colorado Book Award for Young Adult Literature. Book two of The Mechanists Series, Fall of the Iron Gods will be out April 2024. She is a contributor to the YA folk horror anthology The Gathering Dark, the desi anthology Magic Has No Borders, and the Star Wars anthology, Return of the Jedi: From A Certain Point of View. She lives in Colorado with her family.
Praise for Rise of the Red Hand
"Steeped in elements from real-life South Asian cultures, the worldbuilding is original and intriguing, incorporating dystopian and utopian elements along with current hot issues such as societal inequities, digital surveillance, and technology’s impact on humanity.... [A] strong and intricate story." —Kirkus Reviews
"This is speculative fiction as we rarely see it—with the global south speaking up in a powerful and compellingly imagined near future. Rise of the Red Handexplores the most urgent issues of our time, the soullessness of technology and the gap between rich and poor, with non-stop action propelled by a sharp young cast. More brilliant science fiction like this, please!" —Ausma Zehanat Khan, author of The Bloodprint
“An exhilarating and relevant story that gives voice to those often unheard and sticks with you long after that last page.” -Alechia Dow, author of The Sound of Stars
“Set in a bleak dystopian near-future of climate change, apocalyptic nuclear wars, inequality and brutal algorithms, Rise of the Red Hand is a fast-paced, surprisingly hopeful tale of unlikely allies coming together to fight oppression. Chadha's debut is innovative, smartly written and harrowingly relevant.” —Julia Ember, author of Ruinsong
“I read Rise of the Red Hand in one swallow, and then immediately again; you literally could not have pulled it out of my hands. It's everything I want in a cyberpunk story: devastating political and existential stakes, a surging pace, and profoundly rad cybernetics. I love this book so much.” —Hannah Abigail Clarke, author of The Scapegracers
“A captivating sci-fi debut that masterfully weaves in commentary on climate change, technology, and class inequality. Rise of the Red Hand delivers on its promise of an action-packed story of rebellion and resistance, and you'll be rooting for the badass revolutionary hero, Ashiva--a girl with teeth, and a metal fist.” —Farah Naz Rishi, author of I Hope You Get This Message